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TheArnolfini Marriage

(1434, National Gallery)Painting by Jan van *Eyck which is believed to depict Giovanni di Arnolfini, an Italian merchant in the Belgian city of Bruges, with his bride Giovanna (who was long assumed to be pregnant, an impression caused only by the fashion of her dress). The mirror on the wall shows two other figures, perhaps witnesses to the marriage ceremony, and the inscription above is taken to suggest that the artist was one of them, for it reads Johannes de eyck fuit hic (Jan van Eyck was here). The dog is probably a symbol of marital fidelity rather than their actual pet.